Loyola U Maryland Updates Procurement Processes
Baltimore's Loyola
University Maryland has upgraded its primarily manual
procurement
process with new software.
SciQuest,
which provides cloud-based spend management systems for public
institutions,
will implement its source-to-settle suite of
procurement software for the
Jesuit Catholic university with more than 6,000 students.
The
system's introduction marks the first time the university will have had
a
centralized system with a single interface to manage its procurement, a
process
previously managed independently by multiple departments.
"We are
confident that having access to so much in-depth procurement activity
data on one
platform will not only make us more efficient and drive cost savings,
but also
more strategic about how we use our resources," said Loyola Vice
President for
Finance and Treasurer Randall Gentzler.
SciQuest's
spend
management system is a collection of cloud-based business automation
programs
for managing spending, suppliers, contracts, sourcing, inventory and
accounts
payable. The source-to-settle suite has four
elements.
Spend Director will automate what is
typically a manual and labor-intensive procurement process and Accounts Payable Director will provide services designed to have an impact
on the university's
bottom line.
Total
Contract Manager is a new addition to the suite
and is
designed to help educational institutions manage contracts with
vendors,
including contract authoring, negotiation, approvals and execution. The
tool
also offers native integration with a Microsoft Word app for contract
authoring, so people who are familiar with Word don't need to learn a
new user
interface.
Finally, there is the updated Sourcing
Director, an on-demand e-sourcing
and bid management tool that will
allow the university to assign weights to the quality and price of
products and
services to help them compare options.
About the Author
Michael Hart is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and the former executive editor of THE Journal.